During medical procedures, patients often lie on a surface and are hooked by wires or cables to a variety of medical devices. The cables often can become tangled or detached. During these procedures, patients often lie on foam mats that are not comfortable and are cold. Arm boards to support the arms are usually detachable from the table, but when they are detached, they can fall to the ground or otherwise get in the way. After procedures, patients need to be lifted off of the mats and transferred to beds or other transport devices.
In addition, the mats typically need to be draped to avoid contamination from patient to patient. The drapes are often simple sheets of paper or polymer material, and they may have pockets sewn in. Patients may need to urinate during prolonged procedures, but in order to do so, they either urinate on themselves and the drape (resulting in a pool of fluid) or they need to have a urinal or catheter placed by ancillary personnel.
Typically, the mat stays with the table from procedure to procedure, and is often uncomfortable. After lying on the mat for a prolonged period of time, a patient may begin to experience back or neck pain. The use of cables may also become cumbersome or inefficient. Because many types of cables, tubes, lines, and the like may need to be used (such as for ECG (electrocardiogram), NIBP (non-invasive measurement of blood pressure), SaO2, or O2), they may become cumbersome to attach, or may be caught on certain large equipment components (such as X-ray equipment). This could prolong setup and procedure time.
Also, in many current medical procedures, medical personnel place their tools on a cart behind them and pull the tools they need onto the drape that covers the patient. Tools often fall on the floor. Some tasks, such as holding a catheter or guidewire for a doctor, require the presence of additional personnel, which is wasteful and inconvenient.